News

Our CESET Member Mulualem G. Gebreslassie (Mekelle University) has presented a paper entitled “The role of community energy to facilitate energy transitions in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Mozambique” in the Global Energy Meet 2023 organised by the United Scientific Group at Boston from March 06-10, 2023. The talk was held virtually on the 5^thday of the conference on the 10^th of March 2023. 

Our CESET co-investigators Lorraine Howe and Carlos Shenga of the Centre for Research on Governance in Maputo have published a new report on the opportunities and challenges for the uptake of community energy projects in Mozambique. 

CESET Co-investigators Dr Joshua Kirshner and Idalina Baptista's new paper "Corridors as empty signifiers: The entanglement of Mozambique’s colonial past and present in its development corridors" is available via open access in Planning Perspectives. 

Our CESET partners at Addis Abba University in Ethiopia have been busy creating an interactive map that provides information on Malawi's community energy systems (CES) as of 2023. A total of 20 community energy systems based on hydro, solar, wind, and a hybrid of solar and wind have been identified.

In November 2022, the CESET team travelled to Maputo, Mozambique to hold its annual team meeting and visit the proposed site for the co-produced community energy laboratory as part of work package 4. During the visit, the CESET team were invited to attend and present at the first Regional Conference on the Regulatory Framework for Access to Off-grid Energycon the 22^nd and 23^rd November. The conference was organised by The Energy Regulatory Authority (ARENE) and the Dutch Development Organization (SNV) through the BRILHO program.

Last week was the premiere of the new CESET short film “community energy in Malawi: on the ground experiences” as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science at The University of Sheffield. The film was directed by filmmaker Sean Lovell.

Josh Kirshner (University of York) and Chris Hara (Mzuzu University) made site visits to several community energy projects in central and southern Malawi in late September 2022, speaking with project directors, managers and local residents.

On 4th of October CESET researcher Dr. Hita Unnikrishnan was invited to deliver a seminar at the Department of Environment and Geography in the University of York. 

During our visit to Malawi in April 2022, the CESET team heard presentations from community energy projects - one of which was deleivered by Edgar Bayani of the community energy Malawi (Sitolo Solar PV Minigrid). This was an 80KWh minigrid funded by the Scottish Government in the Malawian village of Sitolo Village in Mchinji District.